On any given issue, some people care more about it, and some people care less about it. Special groups in general are not a bad thing. > If there were just pro

On any given issue, some people care more about it, and some people care less about it. Special groups in general are not a bad thing. > If there were just profit seeking companies, and no opposing forces, that could be bad too, and maybe cause the kind of things you're talking about. That's exactly what the problem is. On many issues, there are no opposing forces to the special interest groups. These arise when for example when an industry causes a small issue for a large population. It's difficult to organize and litigate in such cases. Edit: I think we're mostly in agreement. I think what is needed is, like GP suggested, a rational way to balance the incentives for the special interests and the public good. Our current system relies on mustering large public support to make legal changes for the public good, but that's not scalable, and doesn't tend to rational, balanced thinking.